I found this presentation slow to start, but here it is in case you want it.
The Report is produced by the World Economic Forum in cooperation with INSEAD, an international business school, and is sponsored this year by Cisco Systems.
For more information:
- The Global Economic Forum website for the report
- Information Economy Report 2007-2008
- Executive Summary
- The Development Gateway ICT Community Highlight
| Rank 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 | Country Denmark Sweden Switzerland US Singapore Finland Netherlands Iceland Korea Norway | Score 5.78 5.72 5.53 5.49 5.49 5.47 5.44 5.44 5.43 5.38 |
The United States is listed as fourth, but think about it. We find Scandinavian countries (Denmark, Sweden, Finland, Iceland and Norway) in the top ten, but they are small. It might make more sense to compare the European Union with the United States, or to compare California with Scandinavia.
An Inquietude
I think developing nations should use some caution in translating the findings of this study into their own national policies. The fundamental question is which improvements in the ICT infrastructure and its use will be cost effective means of improving economic productivity, reducing poverty, and contributing to social development. While there may be commonalities among countries at comparable levels of social and economic development, the answer will I think be different for each country. As a result, the policies promoted by national governments should ideally differ from country to country.
I suspect that for the least developed nations, emphasis should be on extending mass media -- radio and television -- to provide information and services to the general public, including community radio to meet the needs of ethnic minorities. The broadcast infrastructure in the most developed countries, long having reached maturity, would be concerned with transfers to high definition TV, use of the White Spaces and digital radio -- quite different than the broadcast concerns of the developing nations.
Similarly, the least developing nations will be seeking ways to use mobile communications to leapfrog infrastructure constraints which they face that have long been overcome in developed nations. Thus one sees the least developed nations developing institutions such as mobile phone based financial services, Grameenphone networks, and Voxiva's health service support via cell-phone and call answering technology.
The U.S. and European aerospace and defense manufacturing industries may require high power computing networks, but the relatively low-tech agricultural and service industries that dominate the economies of poor nations will benefit from more affordable ICT investments.
I suspect that for the least developed nations, emphasis should be on extending mass media -- radio and television -- to provide information and services to the general public, including community radio to meet the needs of ethnic minorities. The broadcast infrastructure in the most developed countries, long having reached maturity, would be concerned with transfers to high definition TV, use of the White Spaces and digital radio -- quite different than the broadcast concerns of the developing nations.
Similarly, the least developing nations will be seeking ways to use mobile communications to leapfrog infrastructure constraints which they face that have long been overcome in developed nations. Thus one sees the least developed nations developing institutions such as mobile phone based financial services, Grameenphone networks, and Voxiva's health service support via cell-phone and call answering technology.
The U.S. and European aerospace and defense manufacturing industries may require high power computing networks, but the relatively low-tech agricultural and service industries that dominate the economies of poor nations will benefit from more affordable ICT investments.
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